Firefox, keep loosing cookies to certain sites

[Red Squirrel]

This is really annoying, it just randomly started recently. Every couple days, it will loose all the cookies for random sites such as forums, forcing me to have to relogin. Anyone ever seen this before? What causes it? It's quite annoying.

 

[lxskllr]

My two guesses are the cookies are expiring. or the database is getting corrupted somehow. Maybe a reinstall would help for the later.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hmm I'll try a reinstall. I have not updated in over a month, they're probably like 30 versions ahead by now anyway. LOL

 

[Red Squirrel]

Well that sucks, it looks like it has to do with the setting to accept 3rd party cookies. If it's turned off, then some sites don't work. I turned that off in hopes it makes it harder for Google to track my every move on sites that have google ads but guess I have to keep it on. That blows. Seems it's a very flaky setting as it was blocking actual site cookies for lot of sites.

 

[lxskllr]

I've never had an issue with 3rd party cookies. The only time they've affected me is on cross site logins. Try the Ghostery addon. That should accomplish what you want while keeping 3rd party cookies on.

Edit:
Spelling, and to also suggest the HTTPSeverywhere addon. You need to get that from the eff.org site.

 

[Steltek]

Well that sucks, it looks like it has to do with the setting to accept 3rd party cookies. If it's turned off, then some sites don't work. I turned that off in hopes it makes it harder for Google to track my every move on sites that have google ads but guess I have to keep it on. That blows. Seems it's a very flaky setting as it was blocking actual site cookies for lot of sites.

Have you entered the forum websites in the Exceptions box (i.e. under Tools, Options, Privacy (check the "Accept Cookies", "Accept 3rd Party Cookies" and set to keep "Until I close Firefox")?

The way it is set for me Firefox (actually Nightly in my case, as I'm running the v14a1 alpha) accepts the cookies for the current session and deletes all of them whenever I restart FF. The sole exception to the deletion is the websites I manually show in the Exceptions box ticked as "Allow".

This, together with the Ghostery add-in, seems to work very well for me. The only downside is that I have to manually enter the websites that are exceptions (though for me it isn't that bad as there are only a handful of websites I am willing to accept cookies from).

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'll have to try that, I'll see how that goes. For now I just have 3rd party cookies back on and I explicitly put a deny on Google, but I'm sure they're not the only ones that spy on you so I'll look at that ghostery add-in as well.

 

[Steltek]

I'll have to try that, I'll see how that goes. For now I just have 3rd party cookies back on and I explicitly put a deny on Google, but I'm sure they're not the only ones that spy on you so I'll look at that ghostery add-in as well.

You'll be shocked at the sheer amount of tracking and ad garbage that Ghostery reveals on some webpages. I know I was when I first started using it.

Ghostery does cause some links to not work properly, though, so you do have to disable it from time to time on some websites.

 

[lxskllr]

You'll be shocked at the sheer amount of tracking and ad garbage that Ghostery reveals on some webpages. I know I was when I first started using it.

Ghostery does cause some links to not work properly, though, so you do have to disable it from time to time on some websites.

It also provides an ethical dilemma. It breaks ads in many sites, so you're left with the choice of supporting the site and getting tracked, or blocking the trackers and screwing the site owner. I don't mind ads when they aren't obnoxious, so I like to leave them on with sites I like, especially the smaller sites. I haven't figured out the best approach to this as of yet :^/

 

[billyb0b]

I lose my cookies when I drink too much. D:

 

[Steltek]

It also provides an ethical dilemma. It breaks ads in many sites, so you're left with the choice of supporting the site and getting tracked, or blocking the trackers and screwing the site owner. I don't mind ads when they aren't obnoxious, so I like to leave them on with sites I like, especially the smaller sites. I haven't figured out the best approach to this as of yet :^/

I'm in the same boat.

I try to keep a balance and only turn it off on websites where they really go obnoxiously overboard with the ads - if it seriously impedes my web browsing, I don't hesitate to flip it on. I also turn it off on most of the forums I frequent (such as Anandtech), as well as most private websites (the information I gain is more than payment for putting up with a few ads).

I definitely leave it on as much as possible on commercial websites such as Newegg and Amazon. And, even then, I still pick up a lot of tailored adds following me from site to site when I forget to flip Ghostery back on.